


The Ups And Downs

by Heres_a_gay_theres_a_gay



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, Light Angst, Minor Alex Danvers, POV Lena Luthor, also don't hate me for writing Veronica & Lena, kinda slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 14:49:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19134259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heres_a_gay_theres_a_gay/pseuds/Heres_a_gay_theres_a_gay
Summary: The first day of Freshman year a new girl asks to sit across from Lena. She has no reason to say no, and thinks nothing of it. One class turns into one lunch, which becomes one year, and before she knows it there's been a full four years of ups and downs.





	The Ups And Downs

**Author's Note:**

> Hope your eyes don't bleed , I wrote this in like a day & didn't edit it.

Lena met Kara when they were 14, in a very average way.

“Hey, is this seat taken?” 

Lena looked up from her phone at the voice, giving the blonde girl standing across from her a polite smile and a small shake of her head.

“Awesome, I’m new to this school and I was really afraid I wasn’t going to have anywhere to sit,” the blonde gushed thankfully as she sat down.

Lena raised a single eyebrow. “It’s freshman year, we’re all new.”

“I know, but I’m new to the town and that’s a whole other level and it’s only the second period of the first day but I already feel so out of place.”

Lena’s eyebrow twitched higher before she lowered it, looking back down at her phone. “We all do.”

She felt the new girl study her for a moment before saying, “I’m Kara” and sticking her hand across the table.

Lena looked back up, eyes flicking from the hand to the face. “Lena,” she said, taking the girl’s hand for a firm shake. 

All in all it wasn’t that notable, she was a new girl on the first day of highschool school walking into a math class and she needed somewhere to sit. Lena thought nothing of the day, expecting to have entirely forgotten about the interaction by lunch.

She hadn’t.

Lena was sitting alone on the stage when the blonde that was currently running around her head approached her. “Can I sit with you? I feel kinda awkward sitting by myself in the middle of the cafeteria.”

Lena looked up from her lunch, surprising herself with how quickly she nodded and scooted over. 

They didn’t really talk, Lena content to scroll through articles on her phone and Kara content with people watching. Lena didn’t expect it to become a trend - she had seen the blonde talking to some other students as they filled out of math, so she figured within the next day or two Kara would have friends and stop sitting next to Lena.

She was more or less right. Kara stopped sitting with her at lunch, but their math teacher often assigned them to the same table or group, so she didn’t exactly forget about the girl. At most Kara became part of her peripheral vision, and nothing she would remember over winter break.  
Come second semester Lena had, as predicted, almost entirely forgotten about Kara. Until the blonde was assigned the seat across from her in Social Studies, the only thing that had stuck in the Luthor’s head was the girl’s beaming smile.

“Okay class, you have the instructions, I’ll trust you to find your own groups. I expect this done within the week.”

As the rest of the class descended into exited chaos, Lena stayed in her seat, staring straight ahead. She was surprised when she finally looked around to see Kara doing the same in the seat diagonal from her’s. “Group?” she ventured.

Kara, seemingly startled out of a sort of haze, smiled shyly. “Ya sure you want to do that? This isn’t my best subject.”

Lena offered a shrug. “I can do the research and you can present it.”

Kara’s smile got a bit brighter, but it was nothing like the beaming grin that had kept her in Lena’s mind for months now. Lena suddenly felt rather disappointed, and it took her a minute to relate the two facts. She then dedicated the whole class to getting that smile back - she was fine doing this as homework anyway.

“Joseph Stalin should have known communism wouldn’t work,” Lena eventually ventured as they worked silently side by side upon noticing who the girl next to her was reading about. Kara looked at her with confusion, waiting for her to elaborate. “I mean really, there were red flags everywhere,” she explained.

Kara snorted slightly. “You’re a punny one aren’t you?”

Lena grinned. “Who isn’t?”

Kara shrugged, looking back at her computer. “When I was first learning english I hated them - they can be really confusing. But then I started using them to better understand your language and now… they’re great, you’re right.”

Lena wasn’t surprised to learn that English wasn’t Kara’s first language - she’d always had a slight accent that the Luthor couldn’t quite place. Still, she was tempted to press the subject. She went to ask for a pun in Kara’s native language, but decided to instead provide one in her’s. “Can't remember the Irish for weather, but aimsir it'll come back to me.”

Kara’s head shot back towards Lena. “Gaeilge?”

Lena smiled, “Not many people know it. I was born in Ireland.”

Kara returned a smile of the understanding Lena was trying to portray. Seeming to get an idea, the blonde turned back to her computer and typed something in. When Lena tried to see what it was she shifted so her screen isn't visible.

“C’mon, what is it?” Lena asked, a small laugh in her voice.

Kara looked up with a mischievous smile, and instead of answering she said “Roses are red, so is the state, let us be comrades, because you are great.”

“Did you google comunist friend requests?” Lena laughed, resuming her efforts to see what was on the screen.

“No, of course not!” Kara leaned away from Lena to keep the computer out of her view. They ended up wrestling each other for the computer, until Kara finally closed the tab and handed it to Lena in triumph with that huge, sunny grin that had stuck in her head for over a year.

“Watch this,” Lena said, pressing ctrl+shift+t to bring back the tab with a shit eating grin. “I win.”

Kara gasped, but her grin only grew brighter when she realized Lena had yet to read the page. She quickly grabbed it and sprinted away making sure to open and close several tabs as Lena chased her.

That day set the pace for the rest of the year in that class, and surprisingly to her wasn't a mistake on Lena’s part.

~~~

Sophmore year was the year that their friendship of sorts really got deep. That year they had language arts, math, and science together. They sat next to each other in all of them, a boy named Winn - Kara’s friend - eventually joining them in science and a girl named Alex - Kara’s sister - slowly starting to talk to them in math. Kara would even sit across from Lena at lunch some days, who know sat at an actual table with her new friend Sam. 

Sophmore year was also the year Lena decided she had been in the closet long enough. On the three months into the year she had come to school with a shirt that read ‘I’M A LESBIAN’ with the letters colored by the lesbian pride flag. Sam had high fived her, proud she had finally come out, and most other kids had little to no reaction. Except Kara.

When the blonde locked eyes with Lena from across the hall, they both froze. Lena was terrified of her reaction. As for Kara, she just stared at Lena’s chest for a solid minute before blushing bright red and walking away. Lena was confused, at first thinking kara had seen her staring and felt awkward. She tried to find the blonde to apologize for making her uncomfortable, but when she did Kara just shook her head and walked away. Lena was sure it had something to do with her shirt, and she wasn’t sure if she should be cursing herself for ruining their friendship or if she should be cursing Kara for being an ass. 

After a few days of not talking Kara came to school wearing a shirt saying ‘I’M AN ALLY’ in rainbow letters. She didn’t talk to Lena that day, but they locked eyes for long enough that Lena understood - her sexuality wasn’t the problem here. There was something else going on that Lena was determined to figure out. 

Lena asked Alex, who she had become something just above acquaintances with at this point. The elder Danvers however just rolled her eyes and told Lena to move on with her life - something about Kara never talking to her again. Definitely discouraging, but it gave her an idea. Just because Kara wasn’t talking to her didn’t mean she couldn’t talk to Kara. The next day before first period Lena cornered her in the bathroom.

“What’s going on with you?” she asked, giving Kara the chance to explain herself. When the blonde just looked at her with sad, pained eyes she decided to continue. “You’ve been avoiding me for the past week now, and I don’t know why. Did something happen? It’s not because I’m a lesbian, Alex reassured me of that much. So why haven’t you talked to me?” Kara just continued staring at her, and Lena gave up. “Fine. Get back to me when you’ve grown up.”

Lena stormed out of the bathroom, tears in her eyes and shards in her heart. She had spent months convincing herself that Kara wouldn’t do this, that she would be supportive of Lena when she came out. Obviously she was wrong and Alex was just trying to spare her feelings.

Kara completely avoided Lena until second semester, when she moved to sit next to her in math class, setting a twix on her binder. They didn’t say anything to each other - Lena refused to speak until Kara did - but for the rest of the year Lena would find different chocolates on her binder at different times, all in classes that she shared with Kara. She supposed as far as cowardly apologies went, she could accept this one of Kara would just talk to her.

~~~

Junior year. They were in the depths of highschool now, and kids got more confident by the day. You could no longer idetify someone with a broad word - Lena couldn’t be ‘the lesbian’ or ‘the genius’, the grade’s computer wizz wasn’t ‘code guy’ anymore, and the couples couldn’t be identified without both names. Lena wasn’t sure if she liked it or not yet, but she was determined to make herself like it.

She quickly settled into a routine. She would wait for Veronica - who had apparently decided that junior year was the year to finally ask Lena out - behind the school, walk her to her first period where she would meet Sam who she’d then walk with to their first period. She’d go through her first three classes, seeing who she ran into, have lunch with Veronica and Sam in this little nook Sam discovered on the roof, then do the same for her last three classes before walking Veronica home and hanging out there until she got bored.

Kara had always been a bit of a tornado that stopped Lena from having such a consistent schedule but as her first entirely Kara-less year began she hopped to fix that. They didn’t share any classes, and sure she still got the chocolates on her bag but she could almost convince herself it wasn’t connected to Kara.

She failed within the first month.

She was walking Veronica to class when an all to familiar voice called her name. “V, can you find your first period on your own?” she asked, trying to apologize without actually saying the words. 

Veronica seemed to understand, giving a small smile before saying, “Of course babe.” followed by a peck on the lips and a “don’t get into any trouble without me.”

She watched her girlfriend walk away until she was out of sight before turning to Kara. “We haven’t talked in over a year, you better have a good reason for tearing me away from one of the best parts of my day.”

“Remember when talking to me was one of the best parts of your day?” Kara asked, a hint of sadness in her voice.

Lena just rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that was before you refused to talk to me for a year because I’m gay.”

Kara’s jaw dropped. “You think that’s why I stopped talking to you?”

She raised a single eyebrow. “Why else?”

Kara sighed. “I’m really not ready to talk about it yet, and I didn’t want to talk to you until I could give you the full explanation, and I get if you don’t want to talk to me until I can, but… I miss you.”

“Is this you asking for forgiveness?”

Kara shook her head. “No. I don’t deserve forgiveness, at least not until I can explain myself. I’m asking for us to re-start, just until I’m ready to tell you.”

It was Lena’s turn to sigh. “Kara, I’ve missed you too, but I can’t be friends with you and pretend that you didn’t avoid me for a full year. You were the first real friend I made and you dropped me like I was nothing. Just give me a reason.”

Kara looked at the ground, then back up at Lena. “Can - can we please just restart? I promise I’ll tell you when I’m ready.”

“Yeah Kar? And how long will that take? Another year?” When Kara didn’t respond, Lena softend, stepping closer and taking the slightly smaller girl’s hand. “I miss the way we were, and I’m not so sure I can go back to that just yet.”

Kar looked up to meet Lena’s eyes. “So we go slow. I - I sit on the stage with you and we don’t talk, you help me with math, we trade puns every now and again.” When she saw Lena considering it, Kara decided to go all in. “Please, give me until the end of the year. If I don’t tell you by then I’ll leave you alone forever.”

Lena tilted her head with an amused expression. “You and I both know I don’t want that.”

“I’ll never go five minutes without communicating with you in some way or another again?” Kara amended.

Lena smiled. “That’s more like it.” She took a step back, and stuck out her hand. “I’m Lena Luthor. I’m a lesbian, I’m dating Veronica Sinclair and if you’re not okay with that turn around and walk away right now.”

Kara grinned brighter than she had in about a year. “Kara Danvers. I’m an ally and as long as she makes you happy I fully support you.”

Lena’s smile became a small, goofy grin. “Yeah, she does.”

~~~

It was the last day of junior year, and Kara seemed to have no intention of keeping her promise. They were at the yearly book burning, and she was casually talking to some guy Veronica thought she’d like. Considering how well Veronica knew her, she was probably right but Lena was too distracted for that right now. Kara wasn’t anywhere to be seen, even though her sister and friends had arrived an hour ago. It was almost midnight, and they had been doing so great that year. She refused to believe that Kara was going back on their deal, but if she wasn’t there by midnight there was no other conclusion she could come to.

“Hey, babe,” Veronica nudged her, yanking her back into the present. “You okay?”

Lena looked around. “Where’d that guy go?”

“You mean Stevie?” when Lena nodded, the taller woman laughed. “You must be really messed Luthor, he left like twenty minutes ago.”

She looked at the ground, slightly embarrassed. “Sorry.”

Veronica sighed, moving to stand in front of Lena rather than next to her. “Babe, look at me.” She gently guided Lena’s chin up until the Luthor was looking her in her eyes. “How much do I love you?”

Lena smiled softly. “You spent two years trying to figure out how you could take my period and add it to yours so I wouldn’t have to have one.”

Veronica returned the smile. “More than that. You know I just want you to be happy, and if standing next to me right now isn’t going to do that you can walk away.”

Lena’s brows furrowed. “V, I love you too. Why wouldn’t being here make me happy?”

Veronica gave her a ‘you think you can fool me?’ look. “You haven’t stopped checking your phone all day, and the second Kara asked you to take her back you were suddenly that bright beautiful little girl I first fell in love with all those years ago.”

“You know you’re the one I love right?” Veronica nodded, though Lena could tell she wasn’t actually so sure.

“That’s not what I’m saying here. You love her too, even if it’s in a different way than you love me, and you might find out that she’s leaving you again in a couple of hours. I understand if you’d rather be hunting her down right now than listening to all the kids you’ve spent years hatting try to talk to you.”

Lena heald her eyes for a long moment before giving her a soft and loving kiss. “I love you.” she breathed when she pulled away before turning and walking out to find Kara. If that brat thought she could drop her again she had another thing coming.

After an hour of looking she got a call.

“I’m in our freshman year math classroom.”

Lena sputtered, unsure of what to say. “What?” she finally managed.

“You can’t have forgotten our first year already. Meet me in room 139.”

The line went dead, and Lena sighed. She called Veronica. 

“Did she explain herself or do I have to beat her up?” her girlfriend asked the second she answered.

“That’s still up in the air. Can you drive me to the highschool?”

“Is that a grand gesture I sense? On my way.”

Less than fifteen minutes latter Lena was sitting in Veronica’s car outside their school. Veronica had offered to come in with her, but Lena had insisted this had to be between just her and Kara. She was just hoping the drive would have taken longer. She finally took a deep breath before stepping out of the car and walking into the building with her head held high. There were a few night guards, but they had seen her so many times over the last three years that they let her pass without question.

When she got to the class she walked in, surprised to find all the lights off. She switched them on, and sat in the same seat she always had - come to think of it, probably the same seat she sat in when she was 14 years old and this building was brand new to her. She pulled out her phone to text Kara asking where the hell she was when she heard someone in front of her.

“Is this seat taken?” Lena looked up to see the one and only Kara Danvers standing there with a hopeful expression on her face.

Lena thought she knew where this was going, so she sat up a bit straighter and shook her head.

“Awesome. You’re really pretty and there’s a lot of open tables but I needed an excuse to talk to you.” Kara said. Lena was thrown off guard - that was not where she thought this was going.

“I don’t know what to say to that,” Lena said, looking down to hide her blush.

“That’s okay.”

Lena looked back up but kept her head down. “Okay.”

“I’m Kara. I’m bisexual, but I didn’t think that was a thing you had to declare because I’m from another planet - Krypton. It exploded, but there everyone was more or less what you would consider bisexual here. I would never make the awful mistake of avoiding my best friend for over a year because of her sexuality, but if she ever thought I did it would probably be because I was confused. I have powers, just like Superman, and if she was suddenly more confident in her sexuality my super senses would pick up on the change of hormones and I would panic. I would have to adapt if I didn’t want constant sensory overload.”

Lena stared at her with a blank expression before finally understanding what was going on. “I’m Lena. I’m a lesbian, and that’s definitely a thing you have to declare - especially where I’m from. I’ve been raised to think people would abandon me for my sexuality, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a friend abandoning me right after I came out would convince me that they were a homophobic asshole no matter how many times I was told otherwise. I think they’d have to be an alien for me to forgive them.”

They shook, then sat across from each other in silence for a while.

“Did you know they’ve stopped calling you the lesbian genius?” Kara asked.

Lena raised an eyebrow. Sam hadn’t informed her of any switch in nickname. “What have they replaced it with?”

“Kara’s smile,” Kara said shyly.

That made Lena strangely proud. “Well, you always were more popular than me.”

Kara laughed. “Hardly. They call me your shadow.”

That also made Lena proud. Then she realized something. “You introduced yourself the exact same, except the information was more relevant. But at the beginning, when you explained why you wanted to sit across from me…”

Kara smiled, shaking her head. “That was all the stuff I wanted to say to you the day we met. Sure, some of it was edited to fit the situation but the second I saw you I was overwhelmed with the urge to ramble about never intentionally hurting you.”

“And the part about me being pretty?” Lena asked.

“Word for word,” Kara assured.

They held eye contact for a long, drawn out moment and Lena thought they just might kiss when her phone rung. She looked down to see Veronica calling her. “I think class is over,” she said softly. “Nice meeting you.”

~~~

That was the last time Lena saw Kara until Senior year, and let’s just say it was a long summer. Veronica gave her a very calm out on the drive back to her house that night - she said she’d understand if Lena wanted to go after Kara, especially after everything she’d just found out about her (Lena had left out the alien part) and said she’d still be her friend no matter what. Lena had thanked her, and that had been the end of their romantic relationship. Veronica still said they’d been dating since they were five, just like she always had, but they weren’t really anything more than friends and everyone knew it. 

There was no comments from either party on the night of the book burning, both Kara and Lena seemingly content to ignore the event - that is, until the third week of school when Kara cornered her in a bathroom. 

“What are we?” she asked.

“What do you want to be?” Lena retaliated.

“Your girlfriend,” she said confidently.

“Okay,” Lena agreed.

“Okay?” Kara asked.

“Okay,” Lena repeated, as if it made it any clearer. Then she laced their hands together and lead them out of the bathroom.

Veronica and Sam were leaning against the wall oposide the bathroom waiting for her, and when Veronica noticed their hands she nudged Sam and pointed. The woman beamed.

“You finally got the girl!” Sam cheared.

“Congrats Luthor, you’ve bagged the Danvers!” Veronica agreed.

Once the kids around them heard the names there was somewhat of an eruption. 

“Wait, they’re finally together?” one voice asked.

“One of them actually grew a pair?” another exclaimed.

“Shut up, just be happy for them!” one scolded.

Comments like those bounced around, but Lena just looked up at Kara and smiled. She stood on her tiptoes to press a kiss to Kara’s cheek before leading her girlfriend out of the crowds and into their shared first period.

**Author's Note:**

> I whipped up this short thing cuz I felt bad that it took me so long to update my professor AU (Professor Brick Wall & Professor Overshare if you wanna check it out) but I don't think it's too bad. Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading!


End file.
